Thanks! Sent you a message.
I can’t help but think of this Groucho Marx quote, “I refuse to join any club that would want me as a member.” She only wants what she maybe can’t have! - Yes, I can sympathize! DD1 has gotten a lot of acceptances and some good offers, as well as some frequent contact from several schools, but she keeps finding things wrong with each school when we visit. She has now added 2 more schools to apply to and visit, in search of the perfect fit. It’s driving me crazy!
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Well, we’re deep into February and still have another 6 weeks before we know about all the schools he applied to, but my DS is leaning into the idea of U Alabama more every day. He’s a finalist for the Witt Fellows and the Blount Scholars program and has gone on the record that “it will be hard to say no the Bama after they have been so interested in me.” Between the automatic scholarship $ based on his stats, the Honors College and related smaller intellectual communities like Witt and Blount, the overwhelming school spirit, the social scene, the warm weather… I think we might have a winner. We head to Tuscaloosa again this week for the Wtt Finalist weekend but even if that doesn’t work out in the long run, it will be good to see the school again (it’s been 2 years since we first took him to see it). But I’m reading the tea leaves and I think they are saying, “Roll Tide.”
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It’s over! S25 had his final college interview with a school on the East Coast. That means that the college application process is completely over for us. Feels like the end of an era in some ways. . . Now we just wait for the decisions and hope we’ve prepped our kids for what’s to come once they head out on their own.
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I’m glad to hear I’m not alone. Yesterday D25 was grumpy with me saying I should have helped her find more and better fit schools. This is the same child who flat out refused to do any research on her own. She chose two of the most selective schools in the nation and was done. I had to really urge her to also include other colleges from likelies to targets. She just really puts too much of an emphasis on name recognition. Name recognition to her that is, which excludes a bunch of good schools. And her geographic range was way too narrow, in my opinion, given her parameters. But what do I know? I’m only a college professor. 
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My son had 14 on his list and decided to not apply to 4 of them. Those he chose not to apply to are schools where he didn’t connect with the supplemental questions and I guess in the end that makes good sense.
When the acceptances started coming in he was only interested in 2 of the 7 he got into and only wanted to visit his top choice school (UodSC). The ones that gave him merit he didn’t even want to consider, although initially thought highly of them.
Of The 3 he didn’t get into 2 were super hard reach and one was reach. The two super hard reaches were on his top 3 list, so it made his choice much easier in the end.
Would still have been good to have him visit the Florida schools that he said he would consider due to them being much lower cost.
At the end of the day I’m thankful he found what he wants. It comes at their own pace.
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Yes, same! After visiting about 6 schools and not showing any interest in any of them, she finally liked the vibe at a small SLAC in MD. Told all her friends about it, and none of them had heard of it (most likely because we are in PA and majority of students from her school go to fairly local state schools, or Penn State, so that’s all they know). She is now convinced this can’t be a good school because she thinks noone has heard of it. Doesn’t matter that I have read good things on the school, and I feel like those in the MD/DC area know of it, or that she liked the visit and was accepted in an Honors program. While I am curious to see what the full financial aid package is for the school, she says she is no longer interested.
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Before I would spend money on visits she should be able to write down on paper exactly what she wants in a school at this point and what are reasons she would not go to a school.
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Yay on the cypher card. There is a good chance good news will come much earlier than that.
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I honestly feel bad for kids these days. They get pressure from everywhere. Their experiences are nothing like ours. We have no frame of reference- and we didn’t have social media to deal with.
I would have hated having this kind of spotlight on me when making choices at 18. I took a gap year and worked b/c I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I had the freedom to do that, without judgment, and it was glorious.
Our kids need grace and space.
Edit: this is not meant as a criticism of you btw 
- it’s just a general observation about the whole landscape
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Yeah, it’s the only thing any adult seems to want to ask my kid about, and generally one of the first things they ask me about in conversation. He does a good job of saying “still thinking about my choices, I’m excited to have a number of options”. Which is good, because so many people are really really judgey about schools - fancy enough name, fancy enough program etc. I’m all - I want my kid to be in the right place for them, doing the right program for what they think will set them up best to be happy and successful in whatever. And that place might not be the fancy name you are thinking of.
When we get it is when I tell people that he’s planning to major in Construction Management… inevitably someone replies with “why not civil engineering?” Because he doesn’t want to be an engineer, and engineering isn’t better, it’s just different.
People! [It does not bode well that I haven’t gotten over last week’s feeling of All Peopled Out when the work week starts again tomorrow…]
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My daughter is at St. Olaf and loves it. She is not religious and I have never heard her ever mention that it has strong Lutheran vibes. Maybe if that is what you are looking for? I mean it IS a Lutheran school. But it is not at all pushed.
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This sounds EXACTLY like my D23 who as a result spent a miserable semester at Hamilton college, then a semester home working and re-applying as a transfer student. She is incredibly happy now and it all worked out but man, if she had just done it right the first time and saved us all the anguish 
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University of Richmond was also amazing on this. A letter from the prez to parents along the lines of “hey, awesome job supporting your amazing kids, we’re honored they are considering Richmond. We got them. We absolutely have your and their back in continuing to grow amazing humans.”
It meant a lot and we were all impressed-
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I wouldn’t expect anything less from Richmond. We love that school. Hoping we receive one of those emails next month!
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My son also received a personal email from the admission counselor that read his application/essays at Richmond. That was amazing to me.
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Interesting! My son just got a very generic “Congratulations on your admission” kind of email. I think maybe he got a not so attentive admissions officer because that was one of the few communications he’s had from them all year.
D25 got swag from Hope this weekend, a pair of socks and a magnet with a quote from her essay on it. It was really nice.
She put her deposit down for Hillsdale but still has to notify the other schools she won’t be attending. She has just not had any time. I think it will be done tomorrow.
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Really cool list of schools. The St John’s to which you refer is the “Great Works” school? If so, that’s really interesting. They were highlighted on a podcast I listened to and their approach seems entirely different than most any other school.
Congratulations!
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Well, they are doing some interesting things with maps lately.
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